Chicken Inn take on How Mine
LUVEVE Stadium will today be the battle ground for Bulawayo’s two sides, Chicken Inn and How Mine when they meet in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League tie.
The two teams use the stadium as their home ground and the side that settles first is likely to take charge of the proceedings.
In their eight meetings in the league, Chicken Inn have been the dominant side winning four of those matches with their first victory coming in their first clash in 2013 which was followed by How Mine’s two victories and in 2015 the Gamecocks had a double over their city rivals while last year the former league champions walked away with four points from their battles.
How Mine coach Kelvin Kaindu said the derby effect will influence the result considering the two sides share the stadium, know each other’s strengths and weaknesses while the players would seek bragging rights in the match.
However, he said they would not change from their attacking philosophy which they employ in every other game.
“We would be taking the same attacking approach as we never defend even if we have scored we are always focused on attacking and that is what we are going to do tomorrow.
“But we are playing a strong side that has pedigree and we cannot take them lightly. They (Chicken Inn) have a seasoned and experience coach and it won’t be an easy match,” said Kaindu.
He said while they struggled in derbies last year he is glad they have already snatched three points from one city side (Bantu) and expressed hope to rake in more from Bulawayo teams.
How Mine kicked off the season on a false start struggling in their first three games losing twice and drawing once before managing three wins in a row, a feat that put them among the league’s pacesetters.
Chicken Inn on the other hand has been blowing hot and cold as they are finding it difficult to be consistent. They blasted five goals past Bantu in their first match but were silenced by Bulawayo City in their next fixture before edging Triangle 1-0 away and then losing to Black Rhinos at home.
They managed to get a confidence booster when they beat Hwange at the Colliery and the victory came after coach, Rahman Gumbo had read the riot act to his charges, reprimanding them for complacency.
Gumbo made five changes to the side that lost to Rhinos bringing in defenders Guide Goddard and Ben Nyahunzvi, the midfield duo of Thabani Goredema and Chris Samakweri as well as striker Obidiah Tarumbwa. Gumbo told our sister paper, Chronicle during the week that he was happy his side was improving with each passing game.
“I’m happy with how we’ve been improving and gelling with each passing game, but our major problem has been complacency that crept into the team. You saw how the players underrated our opponents (Black Rhinos). Had it not been for complacency, we could have amassed more points, but we can’t keep referring to the past, we need to focus on oncoming games.
“We face How Mine in our next fixture and being a derby, it’s a game where the set of players have hunger for a win and I hope my boys will do well,” he said.
Chicken Inn will be without injured midfielders Clemence Matawu and George Majika as well as forward Darryl Nyandoro for today’s match while How Mine will miss Toto Banda, who Kaindu said is recovering well after sustaining an injury during their game against Bantu on Monday.
Fixtures Today: Chicken Inn v How Mine (Luveve), FC Platinum v Hwange (Maglas), Triangle United v Black Rhinos (Gibbo) POSTPONED Dynamos v Caps United (TBA) Results: ZPC Kariba 2, Bulawayo City 0 —